Caleb Albisser, 7, and his brother Ryan, 9, benefited from ticket deals in March, when the Canucks lowered prices because of weak demand. The brothers might get lucky again, if early sales are any indication.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider
, PROVINCE

On the eve of the Vancouver Canucks first home playoff game, hundreds of below-face-value tickets were still available online and the team was offering lower-bowl seats at half price to its employees and select corporate partners.

The discount code emailed to team and stadium staff offered lower-bowl seats for the first two home games against the San Jose Sharks at amounts that chopped some prices from $300 down to $130.

The Canucks were unavailable for comment, but provided an email statement, saying the offer was “well received.”

“The offer is an extension of select corporate partnerships and a staff benefit program providing access to a limited number of tickets,” the statement said. “During the 2012/13 regular season a similar ticket offer was provided to minor hockey teams, staff and corporate partners.”

Game 1 against the San Jose Sharks starts today at 7:30 p.m. and is being broadcast on TSN and Team 1040.

Vancouver sport marketing consultant Tom Mayenknecht said even as a highly touted favourite to win the Stanley Cup the last two seasons, it still took “a little extra effort to get the tickets out the door” for the first Canucks home game of the opening round.

“The first game of the playoffs is typically the hardest sell, because everything has to be rebooted from square one,” he said.

Still, sales are lagging this year, likely a hangover from people resentful of the shortened lockout season.

“There hasn’t been the same kind of energy behind the club — a lot of fans taking a wait-and-see attitude before paying for tickets,” he added. “I can’t recall a two-for-one type offer in recent years, but I’m not fully surprised by it.

“If the Canucks continue to win, I don’t think you’d see something like this in the second series.”

About 200 lower-bowl seats were still available on the team’s website Tuesday evening, Mayenknecht said. He said that was still enough to keep the team’s home-game sellout streak going, as per the North American industry standard for a sellout, which is any game with about one per cent of its seats left unsold.

Mayenknecht said this secondary market is feeling the real impact of the lagging demand, with as many as eight times more sellers than buyers.

Kingsley Bailey, owner and manager of the popular Vancouver Ticket, said many season’s tickets owners are coming to him to sell their playoff games to show their “distaste at how they’ve been treated” after the lockout.

“When we do get hockey, it’s a shortened season, it’s against western teams,” Bailey said. “We’re still paying top dollar for good hockey and we’re getting mediocre at best.”

Caleb Albisser, 7, and his brother Ryan, 9, benefited from ticket deals in March, when the Canucks lowered prices because of weak demand. The brothers might get lucky again, if early sales are any indication.

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